xander

December 08, 2012

Every now and then, I'm going to try to dig up old Facebook status posts about things that were going on in our lives, so that I have them in one place, easy to search and find again. A few recent(ish) ones:

Dec 4, 2012:I was hankering for Ethiopian food and feeling brave, so on the spur of the moment, we introduced all 3 kids to Nile Richmond. While 2 kids refused to try anything and the third only ate a little before declaring it to be too spicy for him, the silver lining is this: G said it was good and that he would probably be ready for that level of spiciness in about 2 years (?), X at least tried the injera, and both X and R have been exposed, at the very least. One day all of us will sit down and enjoy an Ethiopian feast, I'm sure.

November 28, 2012:On the way home from preschool today, Xander said that he hoped he would see the "army guy" (homeless Vet who begs at the top of the ramp from Chesterfield Pkwy to Huguenot) today. As we pulled up to the stop light:

X: There he is! The army guy is there!J: Yup, I see him.X: I bet he's getting lots of money.J: Do you think he gets enough money to buy some food?X: and to buy a house!J: I don't think people give him enough money to buy a house.
X: If people have extra money, they could give it all to him. "I'm rich! Here's my extra money, Army Guy!"J: Wouldn't it be nice if lots of people did that? X: Yeah, because then they wouldn't have to buy lots of toys for their kids.

(This may be the first time he has ever indicated that there is any such thing as *too many* toys. I love that he thinks rich people with extra money will really pull up and hand it all to the "Army Guy". And it's a good reminder that we need to see what "extra" we have in our lives, that we could share, so we don't have to buy lots of toys.)

November 21, 2012:
I went to bookmark something for Griffin, and discovered that the "kid stuff" favorites folder I had set up now has many folders inside of it, created, I presume, by Griff. He even made a folder for Reese's favorites. ♥ It blows my mind that something that was so foreign to me until early adulthood - I seriously feared Windows Explorer for years, couldn't get this whole "file" and "folder" thing - is his first language.

November 19, 2012:(when linking an article about body position when talking to children)Me: Reese, do you like it better when I stand up and talk to you and I'm looking down and you're looking up, or when I sit down and our faces are next to each other?Reese: when you're sitting next to meMe: Why?Reese: 'cause then I can control you, because you're looking into my eyes.Me: Yes, Master.

November 18, 2012: A word problem for you: Dan baked 48 mini banana muffins for me to bring to book group. Four of us each had two mini muffins. One of us reports eating one mini muffin. How many are left?

Correct answer: 25. Hmmm.

(One child ate 15 muffins. It wasn't hard to figure out which one.)

November 13, 2012: (Gratitude Day 13) Tuesdays are piano lesson days for Griff and I'm going to pick up the next level of books for him today. I'm grateful that he wanted to take lessons and that so far it's fun and easy for him. I'm so grateful to see the enjoyment with which he learns and practices this new skill. I'm also very grateful for his fantastic teacher, Laura Floyd, who has such a great rapport with him *and* is making sure that he learns theory and technique from the beginning (things I wish my first teacher had focused on more!).

November 12, 2012: (Gratitude Day 13): Tuesdays are piano lesson days for Griff and I'm going to pick up the next level of books for him today. I'm grateful that he wanted to take lessons and that so far it's fun and easy for him. I'm so grateful to see the enjoyment with which he learns and practices this new skill. I'm also very grateful for his fantastic teacher, Laura Floyd, who has such a great rapport with him *and* is making sure that he learns theory and technique from the beginning (things I wish my first teacher had focused on more!).

November 10, 2012:3 7-year-olds in back seat

One kid: "Raise your hand if you've seen your diarrhea. Now what did it look like?"

Dan: "It's about to get REAL in here."

November 4, 2012: Gratefulness day 4: today I'm grateful for a pajama day and for the reading explosion that is happening inside my 7-year-old's mind. I'm also grateful for keeping the faith that like everything else for this kid, one day literacy would just spring out when he was good and ready. Loved hearing him read signs in DC yesterday and just cried over him reading a candy package to me.

June 27, 2010

It started as a daydream. The third-best shelling beaches in the world, within our country's borders.

It continued as an obsession. Time to myself. Beautiful pieces of nature to photograph.

It was put on the back burner, something I would do someday when a trip by myself or with girlfriends was a luxury but not a foolish extravagance.

It flashed across my mind in alarm as oil was spreading across the gulf. Would we run out of somedays?

Then I had an idea: why wait for someday? Why wait until I could go alone? I could go now, with the kids.

I had the idea on Thursday. I booked rooms (with some flexibility built in) on Sunday. On Monday, the kids and I set out on a grand adventure, not knowing how many days it would take us to get there, or whether we would all be screaming one or two or sixteen hours down the road, or how much fun or stress we would have, or when we would return.

All told, we took two days to get there, spent four nights on the island, and two days (ish) coming back. There were lots of expected and unexpected joys and relatively few lows. This starts a whole new chapter in family adventures, I suspect.

Some of this stuff is blogged under the "adventure" category on Spark (June 21-27 plus a "Surviving Spontaneity" series that followed it and is still waiting for completion). There's also a photo set on Flickr. Mostly it was the kind of amazing adventure that can't be described in words, and we all want to go back (with Dan this time) soon.

May 31, 2010

We ventured for the first time to Spring Valley Orchard near Charlottesville to check out their cherry trees. Getting to the orchard involves a good half hour or more of driving on little back roads, but it was so worth it, and the roads seem to keep away the crowds. Caitlin (my sister) and Curious George (the first grade's stuffed monkey) joined us. The cherries were delicious.

So now I'm looking at pictures like this and going, huh. There's a photo of a nursing toddler. Ok. And the story was...???

I mean, besides the fact that the shape of a nursing baby's mouth is perhaps the cutest thing ever on this whole freaking' earth. And the whole wanting-to-remember-this-ness of it because I was sure he would be weaning any second.

Riiiiiight.

And I'm looking at photos like this one that predated the cliff-drop that happened after April 23 and I'm wondering, why didn't I post that?

I mean, this was share-worthy, right?

I mean, at the very least, it's proof that I make awesome kids and awesome photos. The world should have more proof (albeit password-protected, post-dated proof) of my awesomeness.

So, in the interest of serving the deep need for more awesomeness (stats indicate that there are still a meager few who check this blog each day, hoping beyond hope for evidence of our existence beyond April), I pledge to UPDATE THIS BLOG. By the Hammer of Thor, I shall do this!

Although first, I think I shall have some wine, because we don't want me swearing on Norse gods any more than is absolutely necessary.

April 14, 2010

I originally met Carolina through the local chapter of Attachment Parenting International and re-met her through Sabot (Griff and her son Quin were in the Garden Room in 2006-7 together) and then again through the Richmond Natural and Attached Parenting boards/group. She has started a nature club through NAP and every now and then we manage to make it to a meeting. Today, the group got together at Larus Park, which is a little wild patch of forest with dirt paths that's tucked between the neighborhood where my in-laws are moving and the campus for Sabot at Stony Point.

(Oh, wait - I just searched the blog and realized that I probably haven't mentioned (bizarrely) that Dan's parents are building a house in James River Crossing, a new neighborhood on the Southside. Excepting the 3 years in which the Huguenot bridge will be closed, they'll be about 15 minutes away from us. They're keeping their St. Louis house for the time being and anticipate splitting their time between there and here. We're pretty psyched about it.)

So, Larus Park: VERY cool. Very wild, very shady, very green. If you walk about a mile, you reach a little creek. My understanding is that the creek can be reached more quickly from the Sabot campus.

Aside from all three kids getting terrorized by over-enthusiastic dogs who weren't on leashes (READ THE SIGNS, PEOPLE), we had a great time. Xander and Reese explored the banks of the creek, Griff hung out with Quin and Scott, and I was in heaven trying to photograph a million and one tiny inchworms. They were everywhere.

April 11, 2010

April 08, 2010

First river adventure of the year! I thought it might be a nice day to have a toddler-friendly wade in the shallower parts of the James - namely, the creek-like portion that splits off and runs South of 42nd Street Island. I put out the call, attracted a couple of friends (Johannah, Sara K), and headed out. Well, OOPS. The sleepy July creek is more of a mountain river at this time of year. Fast-flowing, full, without many places to sit or footholds/handholds. This was a little on the stressful side for parents of 2 y/os, but everybody had fun. Griff LOVED getting to see Mia and finding deep water (exhibit A, above). I enjoyed hanging out with other adults in those brief moments when I wasn't scrambling to save Xander's life or spot him when he wanted to cross the river on a log. Reese is fairly independent, especially since he likes to stick to the rocks. Nice to see how much more laid-back Sara can be with three kids who are older (3, 6, 13 compared to my 2, 4, 7). My time is coming, right? And until then, her son TJ may just be a great babysitter...